 Margaret Clancy When Jasper N. Teague arrived in San Dimas in 1978, there was an abandoned chimney standing alone among a grove of sycamore trees. These trees were on the bank of a stream coming from the cienegas at Mud Springs, just east of Walnut Street, and south of the present Arrow Highway. He was told that it had belonged to the “Clancy Stage Station,” but it was without an owner then. Mr. Teague built his first home there, using the chimney. Many years later, Mrs. Harry Walker and Miss Helen Rees wrote many letters and made inquiries to learn more about the Clancy family who had originally built the chimney and the house that had burned down. They learned that Denis S. Clancy had come from Limerick, Ireland, and first lived in Memphis, Tennessee. He came out West to San Francisco in 1854 with his wife, Margaret, and moved to Los Angeles soon after. He worked first as a bookkeeper, then in 1862 bought 160 acres in San Dimas from the F. L. A. Pioche family. Denis Clancy had lumber hauled out from Los Angeles by ox cart and built a large, seven-room home among the sycamore trees. Two of his children were born here - the first non-native children to be born in San Dimas. |
Denis Clancy Through the influence of a Major McCormick in the U.S. Army, Denis got a contract to supply hay, grain, and horses to the troops coming through the area. The ranch developed into a way-station for stage coaches and others, as well as the troops. It was probably not a change station for the stage coach horses, but just a rest stop for passengers and driver. The stage line was known as the Banning stage, presumably being owned by Phineas Banning. About 1869 or 1870, a representative of Henry Dalton contacted Mr. Clancy and informed him that Mr. Dalton owned title to the land under a Spanish land grant. Clancy had bought the land in good faith, but since he had recently made a very bad investment in a Los Angeles friend’s business, as well as having had losses from several dry years, he could not afford to fight the claim in court. He was advised that the litigation would be long and costly, as the claim would have to go all the way to the Washington, D.C., land office. Consequently, the family simply moved off the place in San Dimas and to some property they owned in Los Angeles. Through Mr. Clancy’s friendship with William Rowland, then sheriff of L.A.County, he was appointed a deputy sheriff. His health had never been good, and he passed away in 1878. The house he and his family left behind, burned soon after it was abandoned, leaving only the chimney standing. |
